This had better not be locking us into only getting good compatibility with apple products. I will refuse to buy a car if that is the case. I am an iphone user and even still i dont want them to only work with apple products. No good can come from this. If this is just a "module" so to speak that works if you have an ios product, but still allows you to use other devices, then i am all for it. Reply

I know there seems to be a big push for this stuff in the car, but it's just so full of issues...1. Touchscreens in cars are terrible2. Having to hook your phone up with a cable is archaic3. If this is locked to iPhones then it's going to be a huge problem for many many people

Obviously got to wait and see what the end product actually is, but I'm personally full of trepidation with what this could be.Reply

I really hope that this allows for other phones to be connected. This could be a huge dissapointment if it requires you to own an Apple device. Also why would be connect a phone with a cable when bluetooth works so well.Reply

Given that carplay requires a lightning connection, it's almost certain that this year's iPhone won't include wireless charging. Wireless charging could be nice but wouldn't be enough for me to leave the iOS ecosystem.Reply

Yes my experiences with touchscreens in a car is exactly that. All of the buttons can (and do) move about depending on what screen you are on, so you have to concentrate on the screen to accomplish anything, as opposed to tactile buttons where you can learn over time to operate them without looking at them.

It's a huge issue. I know why car makers are going down this road (looks great in the showroom) but not sure of the long term implications of this when we're already in such a distracted driving society already.Reply

It's weird how some people are concerned about being locked in.I imagine if I can actually afford a Ferrari, I wouldn't hesitate to get an iPhone if I don't already have one, just to enhance my driving experience.Reply

Would you think the same thing if you owned a Volvo? What if you own a Ferrari and you don't want an iPhone? Obviously the Ferrari is a special case, but pretty much all of the rest of the car makers are just owned by average people.Reply

Doesn't seem like there's any lock in--This is the same as the iPod connectors. You don't have to use it and your unit will continue to work.

I may delay any future car purchase until this is available via my car manufacturer of choice. There's nothing comparable to the integration of an OEM head unit plus safety from thieves since they are really only interested in aftermarket units.Reply

I really like the sound of this feature, but until it becomes more widely available I'll continue using "Harken For iPhone" in the car. It's much easier to use than Apple's music player (bigger text, large buttons/touch areas). There's also "Harken" on the iPad but I need a new cradle for my iPad so I can't use it at the moment.Reply

I don't know how you can talk about this area and not mention genivi. That is the platform that, I think, you want.The issue with carplay is that it looks to be an iOS only solution. What you want is a platform that can handles the standards and apple. So, for genivi, there would be some "native" apps (depending on the OEM this could be truly native or html5) and an interface to handle external devices. For android/windows that would include miracast, probably, and apple's might be airplay. For wired connections it should be even easier.Reply

Yes, Genivi is for Open Solutions namely Android phones and/or any phone with Wifi and micoUSB plugs. But Apple is propreitary hence, CarPlay being Apple's simplistic implementation. There is no reason why an open Carplay like app can not be developed on any platform and handle the mirror-screen/mirror function controls. All such a system require is a USB2 port so owners can plug in their own cables for charging if they wish. It will use wifi solely to work the integration. This leaves the phone to also allow for being a HotSpot for the car to other occupants via wifi as well.Reply

It's got nothing to do with android. Google created their own consortium to push android into cars. Genivi is lower level than that though it does push for HTML 5 solutions through their web APIs that access car functionality.The advantage of something like genivi is that you can run pretty much whatever you want in userspace but have a nice, standard set of libraries you can count on.As you say mirroring is pretty easy this why I don't see the point of carplay. It seems one could just implement airplay (it's an open spec isn't it?) and call it a day.Reply

Genivi has pretty much nothing to do with android. The spec is broader than that. Moreover, it's a composed of s bunch of companies and acts similarly to linaro except in the ivi space.http://projects.genivi.org/projectsThat's a list of their projects and you can see that the way they want to do business is by upstreaming first.What they provide is a base (through the baselines specs) along with various ways OEMS can provide an experience. The result should be very android like in that every car maker will develop its own skin except it won't be running android (though it certainly could through lxc).Reply

That's what I just said. By providing a baseline for the OEMs it is like Android, but the OEMs still don't know what they are doing because none of them are smartphone makers first and foremost, nor software developers, nor usability experts.

So, like Android, Apple will develop something that others will see and say, "Oh, I want that too."Reply

Ah, I misunderstood the analogy, in particular the Apple to Apple part.So, yeah, I think you've a point though it is being addressed since car OEMS are involved as well.IMHO, it would make the most sense to include some of the Google Web apps since I don't think that requires a license. Eventually they could introduce their own variants based on open street map. For music they're lots of options.Reply

That's because it wouldn't be accurate. Apple worked with QNX so that automakers that use QNX will be able to show Apple's UI being streamed from the iPhone on their display, but it doesn't require QNX to work. It's essentially a passthrough with the car not holding any of the CarPlay UI and the iPhone doing all the processing when CarPlay is enabled.Reply